Electrical parts firm to close stores in Rockland, Ellsworth, Waterville

ROCKLAND, Maine — A worldwide wholesale electrical parts company will close three of its Maine stores at the end of next month.

Standard Electric, owned by Wesco International, will close stores in Rockland, Ellsworth and Waterville on Nov. 30, according to Paul Perry who is the manager of the Maine businesses. The stores in Bangor and Portland will remain open.

The Rockland location has six employees while Ellsworth and Waterville each have five workers, Perry said.

“In Maine, we work a lot with residential and small commercial businesses. The residential market has been struggling for the past few years,” Perry said.

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Wesco International purchased the Standard Electric stores in 1996. The Rockland business dates back to at least the 1970s and is located at the intersection of Granite and Union streets.

Perry said it has been difficult to close the stores with some of the employees long-term workers with the company. The workers were informed Monday and Tuesday, he said.

The Maine Department of Labor’s rapid response team has been contacted and they will meet sometime next week with employees, Perry said.

“It’s fortunate to have something like this to help the workers during this transition,” Perry said.

According to its website, Wesco is a publicly traded holding company headquartered in Pittsburgh. Wesco has 400 branches in North America and international markets. The company employs 7,500 people with 65,000 customers worldwide, according to its website.

Annual sales for Wesco in 2011 were $6.1 billion.

Wesco states it is a leading provider of electrical, industrial and communications maintenance, repair and operating products, construction materials, and advanced supply chain management and logistics services.